The Diseased Heart

Chapter 36

This room carried her scent through its ducts. Riley was in here somewhere, I could sense it. But at the same time, the scent I was catching was...off. It seemed aggressive, more threatening. A small corner of my mind told me to leave before I encroached too far on another's territory, but I continued.

The room was filled with equipment that seemed to double as torture devices. A table covered most of the left side of the room, there were metal cuffs on four different points. It was clear by the blood stains, this was where they infected the people to turn them into Lurkers. Screens and panels lined the walls around the table, ones that would show their heart rate or brain activity were off, but security cameras were on at a separate module.

I creeped up to the cameras. There were two at opposite corners in this room, six with the stables that all showed the same stillness, and one in a room just past the one I was in. The room was nearly pitch black, I could just barely make out a figure slowly moving around the room. It had to be Riley, there was nothing else It could be.

Abandoning the monitors, I approached the sleek, grey metal door. There was no handle, no hinges, no way to see through. Getting closer to the door made me infinitely more uneasy, but at the same time hopeful, as her scent grew stronger with each step. There was a keypad beside the door. I didn't know how many numbers would be in the code, let alone what the code could possibly be.

I started looking around the rest of the room for any code that may be written down somewhere. The right side of the room had shelves of syringes and syrums. I shuddered at the numerous vials, dreading what they may contain. The rest of the desk there had a computer, one that of course, needed a password that I did not know. I growled in frustration and slammed my fist on the desk.

A high pitched screech that was closer to a scream, mixed with a roaring dinosaur and aggressive static shook the walls. I actually stumbled in my shock and nearly fell as the syringes rattled in their racks. I turned back to look at the sturdy door. The sound had come from behind it, yet it was still as loud as it was.

What did they do to you...? You've never sounded like that before...

Suddenly there was a sharp sting in the center of my back that almost instantaneously caused me to fall forward with a snarl, I spun around, falling on my back in the process as my Crawler legs went numb. There was a man standing before me, the sight made my heart sink.

It was my dad.

He was wearing a dusty lab coat and a pair of night vision goggles. Thick black gloves covered his hands, and in one he held a syringe that was half empty. He kneeled down as I tried to scramble backwards.

"I hate to have to do this to you, Ollie. I tried to keep you from turning yourself, so you could stay out of this mess. But you just wouldn't listen to me, you gave me no choice."

It made me sick how calm his voice was, "H..how are you here? Are you telling me you were the scientist that murdered Raven?!"

He shook his head, "No, no. I have hardly set foot in that wretched lab. It was two of my lackeys, as you may call them, that did the job for me! I needed her DNA, you see, but I couldn't just keep her alive, it was too dangerous. She was sane after all, and at the time I had no way of fixing a sane. It is truly a shame, if she was still alive now, I may be able to use her."

I began to shake. My own father was the ringmaster here...for how long? Why would he do this?

"Why would you do this? Taking innocent people and turning them into Lurkers! Why are you trying to recreate the apocalypse, and kill millions of people?!"

"Don't you raise your voice at me, Olive. You know I don't take that."

"I-I don't care!! Answer my question!!"